San Franciscans: Are you embarrassed to be seen reading the Examiner?

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As much as I miss the old 'real' San Francisco Examiner, I think there is a place for more working-class populist papers (i.e. big sports section, classifieds, celebrity gossip, and doom & gloom prophecy about gas prices). However, I won't be seen reading the Examiner.

This applies to all cities and the new free dailies, will you read them? It's a fast-growing phenomenon... a little meatier than UK tabloids, but not much.

― andy --, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

I never pick up the NY freebies at the subway because they're just a bunch of repackaged wire stories that I already know anyway. I guess they have some local content, but not any that's particularly interesting. Plus I'm usually carrying either a book, magazine or iPod so it's not like I'm hurting for distraction. I do see people reading them, though.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Not at all. Free crossword.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

wasn't the old examiner a right-wing rag?? p/u a bay guardian...duh

― Vacillating temp (Vacillating temp), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

No, before the change the Examiner was the more lefty afternoon paper.. the Fang family has turned it into a free daily, no more muckraking.

― andy --, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

who were some of the memorable editorial contributers to the old examiner?...maybe that will jog my native brain cells

― Vacillating temp (Vacillating temp), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:39 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't Ken Garcia there?

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:45 (twenty years ago)

Was he? That guy is a doofus and not particularly left-leaning (although he's no Debra Saunders.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

he writes for the chronicle now....

― Vacillating temp (Vacillating temp), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

it's a pretty pointless little paper now.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

He hates the Fangs now.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

Moronicle.

― andy --, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

Comicle

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

Ambrose Bierce worked at the Examiner once.

The saving grace of the Comicle has been its columnists over the years: Delaplane, McCabe, Caen (for some), Carrol, Goodman, to mention the best.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

The Chronicle's not that bad. How would you know what movie to see without the little man?

xpost on Bierce, the SF papers had a colorful, violent past. I think it was the Chron, Examiner, and the Call had a major newpaper war, with paperboys beating each other, etc. I think Jack Black ("You Can't Win") was stabbed or shot in one of these scraps. Bret Harte wrote for one of them as well.

― andy --, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

i remember delivering the sunday chronicle/examiner, a heavy little sucka, one upside the head is worse than brass knuckles, proving once again that energy equals mass times the speed of an adolescent arm swing.

― Vacillating temp (Vacillating temp), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

I know Bierce worked for a paper called The Wasp too, which apart from it's ethnic connotations sounds like an excellent name for a newspaper

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

The Chronicle is garbage.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

i'll read anything left on bart with no shame.

― nein Socken (nein Socken), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:32 (twenty years ago)

the chronicle is a little light and not as good as it used to be but you don't know garbage until you've had to read all those east bay papers (the hayward one, the union city one, maybe even the tribute now? they're all owned by the same company). THOSE are garbage.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:39 (twenty years ago)

I'm actually surprised that the Oakland paper is as good as it is, but you're right... most East Bay papers suck bad. All they write about is sex offenders and cable rates. I don't give a fuck whats going on in Hayward or Walnut Creek.

― andy --, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

sex offenses and cable watching

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

I don't measure my city's paper against crappy suburban middle of nowhere papers, but by OTHER cities' papers!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

yeah, where is walnut creek...isn't it that hotass place thru a long dark tunnel that doesn't have any fog?

― Vacillating temp (Vacillating temp), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

I think the Chron is commeasurate with the City's size... 3/4 of a million. Politically savvy, but the world section is usually bad and often parts are hidden in the classifieds. I think the sunday travel has gotten slimmer in the last few years.

― andy --, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

All they write about is sex offenders and cable rates.

Surely you'll grant that these are the warp and weft of the very fabric of modern suburban life?

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

The series the Examiner ran on Pimpology, featuring Fillmore Slim, when it first switched hands was completely framable. The rest...well, they have to try pretty hard to give it away. Wasn't Hunter S. Thompson a columnist for the old Examiner?

I think that defending the Chronicle's weaknesses by claiming it's commensurate with the City's population is a feeble argument. I don't consider SF an isolated city, since it's part of the fifth largest metropolitan area in the country. More people in Oakland probably have subscriptions to the Chronicle than the Tribune.

― viborgu, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

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